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The Executive Secretary of UN-ESCAP (United Nations-Economic & Social Commission for Asia and Pacific) Dr. Kim Hak-Su called on the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Shri Kamal Nath here today. Dr. Kim invited Shri Kamal Nath to participate in the ESCAP Annual Conference scheduled to be held in Bangkok on May 16-18, 2005. He briefed the Minister on the important ongoing projects of UN-ESCAP, particularly in the areas of poverty reduction; managing globalisation including activities relating to transport infrastructure and environment; and emerging social issues. Shri Kamal Nath suggested that in the wake of Tsunami, UN-ESCAP should also look seriously into the areas of disaster management.
ESCAP is the largest of UN’s five Regional Commissions covering about two-thirds of the world’s population and India has had a long association of UN-ESCAP as a founder member. Some of the landmark achievements of UN-ESCAP are the establishment of the Asian Development Bank, Rounds of discussions on the Bangkok Agreement and signing of the Agreement on the Asia Highway network project at the 60th Annual Session of ESCAP in Shanghai last year. Dr. Hak Su also indicated that with China recently having joined the Bangkok Agreement, it was proposed to transform it into an Asia-Pacific Agreement. The Bangkok Agreement is an initiative under the ESCAP for trade expansion through exchange of tariff concessions among developing country members of the ESCAP region.
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